Abstract:In this broadly conceived and important book, Craig E. Colten argues that it is impossible to understand the range of contemporary water challenges in the U.S. South without examining the region's pas...In this broadly conceived and important book, Craig E. Colten argues that it is impossible to understand the range of contemporary water challenges in the U.S. South without examining the region's past experience.Flood hazards are not new, nor are the social debates about how to plan for them.Although water supply risks are becoming more common, the reasons why can be traced through shifting patterns of settlement, technology, and consumption.To get a grip on the coming limits to abundance in the U.S. South, Colten traces human-water relations from a period of plenty and excess to an emerging era of shortages and climate change.More than a from-to story, this conceptualization helps readers to understand how policies conceived in an era of abundance have helped to produce some of the challenges of the present, or might be overwhelmed in the future by shifting circumstances.Read More